IRVINE, Calif. – The Pacific men's water polo team secured a spot in the GCC Championships with a come-from-behind 11-9 win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night at the Anteater Aquatics Complex on the campus of UC Irvine.
 
Pacific (10-11, 4-2 GCC) found itself down 4-3 at halftime before coming through with a five-goal third quarter en route to the victory. The trio of Matthew Hosmer, Mihailo Vukazic and Jeremie Cote combined to score 10 of the Tigers' 11 goals in the win.

UCSB (22-9, 3-3 GCC) was led by a pair of four goal, two assist efforts from Sawyer Rhodes and Nathan Puentes in the loss. Lee Yuno had a game-high seven shots for the Gauchos.
 
First Quarter
• Pacific got on the scoreboard just :39 into the contest when Bogdan Djerkovic scored for the early lead. 
• The Gauchos tied the contest when Puentes scored his first of four goals with 5:37 left in the opening quarter.
• The Tigers got the lead back when Mihailo Vukazic scored with 2:52 remaining in the first quarter.

Second Quarter
• The Gauchos' offense came alive in the second quarter with three unanswered goals for a 4-2 lead.
• Vukazic ended the Pacific scoring drought with his second goal of the quarter with 3:18 left in the half.
 
Third Quarter
• Puentes got his third goal on the first possession of the second half for the Gauchos.
• The Tigers came back with three straight goals – two by Matthew Hosmer and one by Jeremie Cote – to regain the lead at 6-5.
• Puentes picked up his second goal of the quarter with 1:59 left in the third quarter to tie the game at 6.
• Again, Pacific had an answer in the play of Hosmer, who scored his third goal of the quarter that put the Tigers ahead, 7-6. Vukazic got his third goal of the game just before the end of the quarter to put the finishing touches on a five-goal quarter for the Tigers.

Fourth Quarter
• Jeremie Cote scored his second goal of the game early into the quarter for a three-goal lead in favor of the Tigers, 9-6 with 5:01 left to play.
• A two-goal surge by the Gauchos made it a one-goal game, 9-8, with 2:11 left to play.
• Again, the Tigers went to the first team all-GCC selection in Cote, who came through with a goal on back-to-back possessions to seal the victory.

With the win, Pacific advances to Sunday's GCC Championship game at 2 p.m. against Long Beach State. LBSU and Pacific have split its last two meetings, in the last contest, the Beach came away with a 15-13 overtime win in Stockton on October 28. 

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